Thomas Pynchon is one of the most celebrated literary science fiction authors of the past half-century, largely because of his masterwork Gravity's Rainbow. And now Pynchon's been given the greatest honor of all — astronomer Ernesto Guido has named an asteroid after him.

On his observatory's blog, Guido writes that he's found a number of asteroids during his career, but that this was his first chance to name some of them. And he finally got confirmation earlier this week from the Minor Planet Center that asteroid Pynchon is on the books. It's orbiting out there in the asteroid belt right now.

Here is the official listing:

(152319) Pynchon = 2005 UH7Discovered 2005 Oct. 29 by E. Guido at Mayhill.Thomas R. Pynchon, Jr. (b. 1937) is an American novelist. He was the winner of the 1974 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction for his most celebrated novel, Gravity's Rainbow.